Call connected through the NSA: Ars readers react

Also Ars chews over Xbox details.

Ars readers had a lot to read this week, and a lot of it was troubling. We'll start with a few revelations made by The Guardian and The Washington Post. The former exposed a secret document on Wednesday that ordered the collection of all metadata pertaining to all calls made by Verizon customers on a daily basis for a period of three months. Both news organizations then released information about a program called PRISM, which seemed to reveal much broader data collection by the government from Web services like Google, Facebook, and Skype.

While almost all of the companies named in the PRISM document have denied knowing about the program, President Obama stated on Friday that while the NSA is digging through telephone call metadata, "nobody is listening to your telephone calls."

Joe Mullin gave us an overview of government responses to the first revelation in his article, As Senators defend mass-surveillance, Patriot Act FOIA lawsuit still awaits. Mullin recounts the reactions of Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), who had vaguely warned about alarming interpretations of the Patriot Act before this week's information came to light. Mullin also reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters on Thursday "everyone should just calm down."

Needless to say, commenters did not feel calmed, and most seemed to echo some variation of the sentiment behind the phrase "just because it's legal doesn't make it right."

"20 years ago such practices were impossible." Mynsc wrote. "Now we're being told 'relax, it's just some silly metadata.' If this goes on and is not limited, 20 years from now we'll be told 'relax, if you're innocent then you have nothing to fear if we're recording and/or listening to your conversations.'" sw!ft felt similarly: "I can't believe Senators are actually defending this. Is it me or did these people forget they were elected to represent the people?"

Perhaps that characterization is a bit dramatic, but given the scale of the leaks made this week, a little drama can be excused.

Shedding light: The Xbox One

On Thursday, Microsoft made public some firm details about the way its new Xbox One will handle physical discs and "always on" requirements for the console. In Kyle Orland's post, Microsoft details Xbox One used games, “always online,” and privacy policies, the company is quoted as confirming that there will be a once-every-24-hour ping made by the console to Microsoft's servers "designed to verify if system, application, or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend."

Microsoft didn't give too many details, but it suggested in no uncertain terms that game publishers would be responsible for enabling used game sales. Loaning and renting games will also be impossible, at least at launch.

Most of our readers reacted to this news with unhappiness, with several readers saying they were most dismayed by Microsoft's Internet-connected console checks because they regularly used an Xbox from places without good Internet: rural America, a hospital bedroom with a shoddy connection, and a "Spanish island" were just some of the places where our readers regularly play from.

Scenario: The zombie apocalypse finally comes. I'm secure in my home with a generator, supply of beef jerky, and beer. I plug in my Xbox One, and cannot play....

I plug in my 360 or PS3, and game on.

Xbox One: Not Apocalypse Friendly.

UltimateLemon vaguely hinted that the decision was somewhat classist: "Presumably no one in their demograph lives in rural area or anywhere that doesn't have internet infrastructure like Redmond, Washington." Commenter Alyeska also felt that the whole setup didn't sit right, saying "Internet connection required to play single player game? Epic Fail. I have never purchased (or pirated) a game with this requirement. And never will. Baked into the system itself? Well Microsoft ensured I will remain a PC gamer for a long time."

Regarding used game sales, readers were hardly any more impressed. "You have to love corporate doublespeak." wrote ScifiGeek. "'We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.' In reality they take something you could always do, and allow publishers to disable it."

And Operative Alex wrote that his disappointment with Microsoft's decisions are largely idealistic: "I was wrong. I thought Microsoft would have a more intelligent way of doing things vis-à-vis used games, which is to say I thought they'd have a system where the person holding the disc could, once they popped it in, use it, and all previous owners would lose access to said game until they put a disc back in that became registered to their console. I predicted as much several times, and it turns out the reality is worse."

"I don't buy or sell used games, but I do respect the hell out of the right of people to do so, and this impacts my desire to buy one rather severely." Operative Alex continued. "I like buying games digitally, and have zero problem with that, but a physical disc is still something that should be treated like, well, a physical disc. Game studios shouldn't have the ability to say 'nope, no resales.' I should be able to make that decision, to either have the ability to resell/loan, or make the decision to buy digital."

Hi we’re Ars and we’re in the word writing business

Ars readers certainly read a lot of heavy news this week, but not everything was so dour. Lee Hutchinson wrote a detailed review of Nokia's latest phone in Review: Lumia 928 is screentastic, camerarific. When Ars tweeted that story out, @willsmith, the editor of Tested.com, tweeted at us, "I don’t think either of those are words."

Our own @Lee_Ars, never one to back down from fightin' words, tweeted back, "You're just jealiciferous of my adjectivability."

"Now you’re just mad with power," replied Smith.

"KNEELIFICATE BEFORE MY WORDULENCE," Hutchinson capslockerated. We would like to point out that we pay Hutchinson a salary to write down these perfectly cromulent words.

This is a perfect opportunity for Ars to write a story, or series of stories, discussing technology and techniques to preserve lawful privacy of phone calls and internet activity. The series on password cracking was extremely informative and I'm sure the professionals interviewed for those would be happy to share their knowledge on this now very relevant subject.

Sensationalist coverage? The news is sensational! Our government is spying on all of its citizens, all of the time?! There's no need for alarm?? This is all hunky dory?? We're just supposed to trust the government to do the right thing?? The same government used by McCarthy, Nixon and Obama to target their enemies? This is Orwellian. What's ironic is that there's a story about the NSA gathering meta data from tech giants, including Microsoft and Skype, and then an article about the Xbox One, produced by Microsoft with Skype installed, but there's no mention about the Xbox One's camera and microphone (Kinect) that are required in order for it to work. We might as well call it a telescreen just to give George his due.

I weep for what the devs at Microsoft, Google, Apple etc, would truly be capable of in transforming the market and the way we live our lives if not for the programmers themselves being held back by corporate bureaucracy.

Humanity. The only species on the Earth that deliberately attempts to retard its own progress and capacity to grow.

In response to the "everyone should just calm down" argument from the government we should list instances where the federal government has "run amok" over Constitutional and/or human rights and lied about it afterward.

The FBI misuse of "national security letters" comes to mind. So does labeling journalists as terrorists, racial profiling of Muslims in NYC, the NSA wiring closet in San Francisco, gun-camera video of our forces killing obvious non-combatants, Abu Garaib, etc. Not to mention historical precedents like concentration camps for Japanese Americans in WWII, Mai Lei, McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs.

Mind you, I'm not saying these things haven't been resolved in some way since, just that the government has lied about them until the truth was fully uncovered and wrongdoing exposed. This propensity to lie to the people is why "everyone should calm down" is a laughable idea coming from the mouth of the government.

Americans, by and large, will ignore this massive abuse of power. I mean who's got time for this, when Jersey Shore, Chloe & Kim, Justin Bieber, et al might have some cool thing on E! or you tube? Meanwhile the 4th amendment is shredded, the 1st is taking a big hit, executive order is droning US citizens without due (judicial) process.

The FBI misuse of "national security letters" comes to mind. So does labeling journalists as terrorists, racial profiling of Muslims in NYC, the NSA wiring closet in San Francisco, gun-camera video of our forces killing obvious non-combatants, Abu Garaib, etc. Not to mention historical precedents like concentration camps for Japanese Americans in WWII, Mai Lei, McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs.

Japanese Americans in WWII... the president of that time said that he knew the constitution was violated and trashed. Sometimes the public give a shit about the constitution and don't care . Why? Then when everything seems to be over, they feel safe and start quoting what Benjamin said over and over. But always, always in the name of liberty and freedom from [place holder].

My disappointment in this article stems from the terse coverage of the "Call connected through the NSA" section of "Ars readers react". I know the Ars community has many members with deep and thoughtful opinions. The volume of front page discussion posts tend to make it difficult to find these gems, and I hoped this article would highlight the best, beyond a couple of examples.

Thank you for covering these leaks and government and corporation responses. The articles give facts and some initial analysis. The community discussion, however, helps put this information into historical and contemporary context, gives voice to legal and moral opinions, and in general helps bring these revelations down to a personal, relevant, level.

Please write a more extensive piece examining the community response. They are a strong and vital part of the citizen dialog, and unfortunately not everyone has the time, capacity, or will to read and digest such a large amount of raw data. (Please run through the relevant Soap Box threads, as well.) Thank you.

Sensationalist coverage? The news is sensational! Our government is spying on all of its citizens, all of the time?! There's no need for alarm?? This is all hunky dory?? We're just supposed to trust the government to do the right thing?? The same government used by McCarthy, Nixon and Obama to target their enemies? This is Orwellian. What's ironic is that there's a story about the NSA gathering meta data from tech giants, including Microsoft and Skype, and then an article about the Xbox One, produced by Microsoft with Skype installed, but there's no mention about the Xbox One's camera and microphone (Kinect) that are required in order for it to work. We might as well call it a telescreen just to give George his due.

Exactly this. The Kinect is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS WATCHING. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for the Gov't to eventually figure a way to spy on people when they don't know it through the Kinect (If it isn't already setup that way). Only way to prevent this is to unplug it from the net and if you keep it off for over 24 hours then you can't even use the system.

Sensationalist coverage? The news is sensational! Our government is spying on all of its citizens, all of the time?! There's no need for alarm?? This is all hunky dory?? We're just supposed to trust the government to do the right thing?? The same government used by McCarthy, Nixon and Obama to target their enemies? This is Orwellian. What's ironic is that there's a story about the NSA gathering meta data from tech giants, including Microsoft and Skype, and then an article about the Xbox One, produced by Microsoft with Skype installed, but there's no mention about the Xbox One's camera and microphone (Kinect) that are required in order for it to work. We might as well call it a telescreen just to give George his due.

Exactly this. The Kinect is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS WATCHING. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for the Gov't to eventually figure a way to spy on people when they don't know it through the Kinect (If it isn't already setup that way). Only way to prevent this is to unplug it from the net and if you keep it off for over 24 hours then you can't even use the system.

edit: spelling

That also causes another concern - unless the power cable is also unplugged, they could just set up the firmware of the kinect to record to a buffer which could be then sent through the network as soon as it becomes available. That's the beauty of having a system being always on "so kinect can hear you ask it to turn on."

That also causes another concern - unless the power cable is also unplugged, they could just set up the firmware of the kinect to record to a buffer which could be then sent through the network as soon as it becomes available. That's the beauty of having a system being always on "so kinect can hear you ask it to turn on."

This is true. The only way to prevent anything obtrusive would be to unplug the system. If you Google the following, you'll see that turning something off doesn't mean that it can't be used to spy on you.

off roving bug

This technique has been used by the FBI for seven years now... maybe longer. "Off" doesn't mean off.

Sensationalist coverage? The news is sensational! Our government is spying on all of its citizens, all of the time?! There's no need for alarm?? This is all hunky dory?? We're just supposed to trust the government to do the right thing?? The same government used by McCarthy, Nixon and Obama to target their enemies? This is Orwellian. What's ironic is that there's a story about the NSA gathering meta data from tech giants, including Microsoft and Skype, and then an article about the Xbox One, produced by Microsoft with Skype installed, but there's no mention about the Xbox One's camera and microphone (Kinect) that are required in order for it to work. We might as well call it a telescreen just to give George his due.

Exactly this. The Kinect is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS WATCHING. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for the Gov't to eventually figure a way to spy on people when they don't know it through the Kinect (If it isn't already setup that way). Only way to prevent this is to unplug it from the net and if you keep it off for over 24 hours then you can't even use the system.

edit: spelling

Sometimes the old-fashioned way is the best way. I vote for a roll of duct tape and some sound-insulating foam.

More movement toward an authoritarian state by our brainless, clueless President, who obeys his government employees instead of making them obey him!

Wouldn't an authoritarian leader be the one who demands unquestioned obedience from his government employees and lash out at the slightest perceived disobedience? I don't see how someone who yields to his subordinates would qualify as an authoritarian iron fist.

Just something I find somewhat off here, but considering that with a bit of work, someone could turn on the webcam and mic on any given person's laptop or desktop, theoretically could do the same for the camera on a smart device (phone/tablets), I'm not feeling the same level of concern over the Xbox One's always on Kinect. It's not that it doesn't alarm me, it's mostly just that we already have enough items around daily that it wouldn't be a terribly large stretch for someone to spy on most of us as it is. This also disregards the spy satellites in orbit. The ones reportedly able to read the cover of a book or magazine in your hands?

More movement toward an authoritarian state by our brainless, clueless President, who obeys his government employees instead of making them obey him!

Wouldn't an authoritarian leader be the one who demands unquestioned obedience from his government employees and lash out at the slightest perceived disobedience? I don't see how someone who yields to his subordinates would qualify as an authoritarian iron fist.

.. the authoritarian leader being mentioned is not the President but those who control him.

If you're curious who IS the authoritarian leader, I would say to look at the 'lashing out' at the 'perceived disobedience' that happened during the Occupy issues. Protestors arrested and abused while the cops who did the dirty work got pats on the back, banks foreclosing on properties they have no claim to along with the bankers get million dollar pay cheques and corporations get huge bailouts.

More movement toward an authoritarian state by our brainless, clueless President, who obeys his government employees instead of making them obey him!

Wouldn't an authoritarian leader be the one who demands unquestioned obedience from his government employees and lash out at the slightest perceived disobedience? I don't see how someone who yields to his subordinates would qualify as an authoritarian iron fist.

The state can be authoritarian with any kind of leader. Obama is not much of a leader; he is mostly a follower; comes from the ignorance of someone with almost no United States background.

as far as i'm concerned, what i did is absolutely fuck all to do with anyone else, especially Microsuck! bloody cheek! if i buy the thing, it's mine! i shouldn't have to do anything i dont want to with it, just because it suits them. and dont forget, this is the company that bought out and screwed up Skype, which happens to be one of the companies that the NSA are monitoring. what does that tell you will be happening to all of your personal data when playing on the new xbox? where do you think your privacy will be going? i'll tell you! straight down the shit chute!!

Right. I am something of an expert in extracting information from big data repositories (hadoop, etc). With phone call metadata, I could probably determine who is talking to whom, their identities, and probably what they are talking about. Privacy? Don't need the phone call itself. This is enough to hang anyone... :-(

Christ. It's bad enough to have to slog through 20 posts per thread of "I'm so right" from pseudo-spammers like Operative Alex, but now we also need dedicated acknowledgments for "I was wrong"? Hardly praiseworthy considering there will be another 20 posts on the next topic.

Individual users should follow a sane limit of 5 comments per thread. Beyond that you're just repeating yourself and attempting to carry arguments by brute force.

Americans, by and large, will ignore this massive abuse of power. I mean who's got time for this, when Jersey Shore, Chloe & Kim, Justin Bieber, et al might have some cool thing on E! or you tube? Meanwhile the 4th amendment is shredded, the 1st is taking a big hit, executive order is droning US citizens without due (judicial) process.

Or they're string together multiple part-time jobs or scrambling after contracts, and don't have a lot of time/energy to pay close attention the broader world than is covered by a superficial news hour program on some local station -- if they can stay awake through it?

Americans, by and large, will ignore this massive abuse of power. I mean who's got time for this, when Jersey Shore, Chloe & Kim, Justin Bieber, et al might have some cool thing on E! or you tube? Meanwhile the 4th amendment is shredded, the 1st is taking a big hit, executive order is droning US citizens without due (judicial) process.

It's unfortunate but true. I've often said this - if the US does enter into long term decline, or loses it's position on the world stage, it won't be because of communism, China, some terrorist group, or some other external threat. It will be because it's leaders made the wrong decisions, politically, legally, and economically. It will also be because America's citizens largely stood by and acted as best as rubber stamp for our current leadership - if it's worthy of the term "leadership".

I mean look at for example, economic crisis of 2008. Apart from Bernie Madofff, hardly anybody has gone to jail, been called to account, or has been investigated. It's one of those things where it's so obvious where the problem is, but that the powers that be have been so entrenched.

Yes, Ars, please downplay this almost unprecedented breach of public trust as the nothing it will be in a few years if we allow it to continue. You don't seem to have a problem getting fired up when it's Microsoft spying on you, this is 100000x worse.

I only buy and sell used games, period. What Microsoft is pulling is bullshit. Honda doesn't get to have a cut from every person who sells their used Honda to another. Everything about the way they are controlling and limiting used game sales is about as anti-consumer as you get.

Oh and could you just imagine if God forbid this fall we have another Hurricane Sandy and we have thousands of users(excluding myself as I won't be buying a One) with Xbox One's who have power but no Internet and thus can't play the games they have paid for??? Way to disappoint the children aholes.

Funny thing about meta data. Google Richmor lawsuit. They are probably not online, but if you have access to the transcripts, it is full of numbers called by the CIA when on Rendition Aircraft. A lot go into various places in Virginia (hint hint). The CIA was not very happy when these phone numbers were made public, let alone the cost of the fancy meals they ate.

Okay, I've never been one to pull punches and this post will get buried under a ton of thumbs down, but the fact is, WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES!

Out of fear. Out of a sense of vengeance. Out of a misplaced sense of trust.

Like it or not, what happened - and what is likely still happening - came about by OUR request. WE demanded to be "kept safe". Yes, the politicians manipulated things for their own ends, but WE bought into the fear and said, "Give us safety! To hell with privacy!"

We have been doing that on Facebook and every social media site we continue to use after they repeatedly abuse us. We have been electing the politicians who say "We'll keep you safe" and who pass the legislation, and get the Supreme Court's blessing to do EXACTLY AS THEY HAVE DONE!

Like it or not, nothing that has happened was ILLEGAL. It wasn't even unethical, because WE demanded they do this. Not to US, of course, but who ELSE? How can they tell without checking first? What kind of idiots think they'll only target "terrorists"? Sure, they'll focus on threats to the security of the U.S., but they have to FIND THEM FIRST.

What, do you think they look that up on Craig's List? How the hell did you ever expect them to do that?

People have their panties in this gigantic bunch over this but none of them seem to realize that WE did all this to ourselves.

You can be somewhat safe or you can be free. Take your pick. But don't lament the dead when that "safety" either way turns out to be less than safe. The price of liberty is ALWAYS paid in blood. We can be a strong nation of citizens united together in times of trial or we can be at each other's throat (as we so often are) because the methods of discovering the threats among us must by necessity invade OUR privacy, too, at least to SOME extent.

Crying about it isn't going to change it. We either die more often, united and bravely facing the threat, or we die less often, cowering behind the false security of invaded privacy and the questionable ability of the government to spot the terrorists (and others) BEFORE they strike. Take your pick. But choose wisely.

And stop bleating about it like the mindless sheep you are. God, that gets really tedious.

Alright, now vote me thumbs down. After all the truth hurts, doesn't it?

In response to the "everyone should just calm down" argument from the government we should list instances where the federal government has "run amok" over Constitutional and/or human rights and lied about it afterward.

The FBI misuse of "national security letters" comes to mind. So does labeling journalists as terrorists, racial profiling of Muslims in NYC, the NSA wiring closet in San Francisco, gun-camera video of our forces killing obvious non-combatants, Abu Garaib, etc. Not to mention historical precedents like concentration camps for Japanese Americans in WWII, Mai Lei, McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs.

Mind you, I'm not saying these things haven't been resolved in some way since, just that the government has lied about them until the truth was fully uncovered and wrongdoing exposed. This propensity to lie to the people is why "everyone should calm down" is a laughable idea coming from the mouth of the government.